The White House announced that, the Indian-American physician-author Abraham Verghese has been selected for the prestigious 2015 National Humanities Medal. His work has emphasized empathy in medicine.

Verghese will be honored along with 11 others and the recipients of 2015 National Medal of Arts, by the United States president Barack Obama at ceremony on September 21.

61-year-old Verghese is currently a professor of medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. He authored several acclaimed books, including "Cutting for Stone" and "My Own Country".

The White House said in a statement that, Verghese has been given the award for reminding "us" that the patient is the centre of the medical enterprise.

"His range of proficiency embodies the diversity of the humanities, from his efforts to emphasise empathy in medicine, to his imaginative renderings of the human drama," the White House added.

Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, said that, "Abraham Verghese is not only an exemplary clinician, he is an exemplary humanist."

Tessier-Lavigne said that, "Every day in the classroom, he teaches his students that professions such as medicine benefit from an understanding of the human condition. We are so proud that his breadth of scholarship has been recognized with this honur."

Verghese an alumnus of Madras Medical College, India, said in a statement issued by the Stanford University that, "I am humbled and excited by this honour."

"The names of previous recipients include writers I most admire. It is a wonderful affirmation of a path that in the early years I wasn't sure was the right path, even though it was one I felt compelled to follow," Verghese said.

"I felt strongly then and now that what I was writing about, and my interest in the human experience of being ill or caring for the ill, was as much a part of medicine as knowledge of the function of the pancreas, for example," he added.

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Nandini